Method and accessories to enhance riding experience on vehicles with human propulsion

ABSTRACT

A set of accessory devices and a method that improves riding experience indoors and outdoors on devices using human propulsion and reciprocating motion. A mechanical accessory device that adds the stepping and reciprocating motion to a pedaling system, like those used on bicycles, tricycles, boats, individual power generators used indoors and outdoors with various positions, and movement range adjustments. A set of electronic accessories added gradually, that measures, records, transmits, processes and shares a large range of the parameters, generically called “riding experience” force and displacements, giving effort and work, GPS, accelerations, movie, etc. giving the path and rider vital and functional parameters, giving medical and exploratory results. A system that uses a code to process these information and transmits on the Internet, used on their indoors devices to reproduce the experience in their terms, transforming their devices in simulators, enabled to remotely control outdoors devices.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/025,068 from Jul. 16, 2014, and NO International application, and has not received any government or state funding.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a set of accessory devices meant to improve riding experience on various human power propelled devices (bicycle, tricycle boats and more), to inter-correlate the indoor and outdoors experiences using computer systems and a method for doing so. The mechanical accessory is meant to increase the comfort and safety of riding, in order to minimize its negative impact for the rider, reduce the effort range required for pedaling, and improve the quality of riding in numerous ways.

It is also meant to diversify the movements during riding from pedaling to stepping using simple crank adaptors, optionally equipped with sensors of movement. The actual riding requires pedaling, that turns difficult for long range riding, while stepping is a more natural movement.

The present devices come to improve the process of riding device propulsion and open the way for cheap application of the device in other domains using the alternate motion for propulsion as power generators, handicap propulsion devices, cranes and other shipyards that requires manual propulsion, and the compatibility of the devices with the actual systems, among other benefits.

The optional accessory electronics are added in the pedals measuring force and position evolution and on riding device measuring the GPS coordinates, position, weather parameters, and making a 3D movie of the path locally recorded or transmitted. It refers to a set of accessories attached on exercise riding devices that allow the reproduction indoors of the outdoors recorded experience, and a set of indoor devices that allows the assisted control of an autonomous outdoors device used by another person, in order to accommodate that person with the outdoors experience.

For the many procedures that require repetitive

These devices may also serve as a safe exercising devices with capabilities of monitoring the health during fitness process and gathering other physiologic data, that may act as athlete classification and advanced detection of potential abnormalities that show up earlier during intensive effort cycles. The use of the electronic effort control devices together with a image projection may create the variable terrain exercising system in a multitude of effort schemes, using legs and arms and monitoring the body parameters and the neuro-system.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Historically, the bike is 200 years old, but new things appear all the time, and in the last period many variants of individual propulsion appeared, but the perfect solution is not yet found, in spite of more sophisticated studies made for competition and health purposes.

In U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,929 from Dec. 2, 1975, entitled BICYCLE PEDAL CRANK EXTENDER, the Inventor: John L. Marchello, teaches an extender for removable attachment to the lower end of and for extending the length of a conventional bicycle pedal crank and adjustably lowering the bicycle pedal relative to the bicycle seat. The extender is formed of an elongated channel shaped to receive the lower end portion of a conventional pedal crank with the upper end of the extender shaped to spring grip the crank. The lower end of the extender is formed with a threaded socket to receive and threadedly engage the threaded mounting stud of a conventional bicycle pedal. The base of the extender channel is formed with a longitudinally elongated slot for overlapping the conventional pedal stud-receiving opening formed in the lower end of the crank. A bolt fits through the slot and the crank pedal stud receiving opening to lock the extender in longitudinally adjustable positions upon the crank.

The accessory is interesting but its application is limited depending on bike's design and terrain it is used.

In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,654, entitled PROPULSION AND TRANSMISSION MECHANISM FOR BICYCLES, SIMILAR VEHICLES AND EXERCISE APPARATUS the inventor: Hector G. Fasce, teaches an apparatus of dual partially independent mechanism to propel bicycles or other vehicles, having a bottom bracket shell attached to a frame, a pair of main shafts mounted separately in said bottom bracket shell, a pair of propulsion levers supporting operating pedals, a pair of arcs each arc attached to each propulsion lever which is mounted on each main shaft, a pair of chains, each chain hooked with one end portion to one arc, and the other end portion of the chain entrained around one of the two freewheels which are mounted on a wheel hub which is disposed rearwardly of the bottom bracket shell, a pair of springs, each spring hooked from one end portion of a chain to the rear portion of each lever respectively.

The U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,211 B1, entitled BICYCLE WITH RECIPROCAL PEDAL LEVERS HAVING SHIFTABLE PIVOT AXIS FOR TRANSMISSION RATIO CHANGE the inventor Hugo H. Yliniemi describes an invention that relates to a cycle, such as a bicycle, having reciprocal pedal levers for propelling at least one wheel of the cycle. The cycle has a frame that includes a rack, a left pedal lever with a rack and a right pedal lever with a rack.

A pinion is carried on the frame with the pinion in simultaneous engagement with the racks on the frame and the pedal levers. A plurality of bearings are mounted around the pinion comprising at least a first bearing providing rotation between the pinion and the frame, a second bearing providing rotation between the pinion and the right pedal lever, and a third bearing providing rotation between the pinion and the left pedal lever.

In the U.S. Pat. No. 8,632,089 B1, Bezerra et al. describes a mechanism for converting reciprocal motion to rotary motion. A pair of driving members is mounted to undergo reciprocal up-and-down movement about a first axis. A pair of driving chains are drivingly connected to the respective driving members so that reciprocal up-and-down movement of the driving members transmits respective driving forces to the driving chains. A driven member is mounted for undergoing rotational motion in one direction of rotation about a second axis different from the first axis. A drive unit transfers, via the driving forces of the driving chains, reciprocal up-and-down movement of the driving members to rotational motion of the driven member in the one direction of rotation.

In the application US 2012/0061940 the authors teach about a drive mechanism effects a rotary power output in response to a reciprocating power input resulting from substantially linear forces applied to the drive mechanism, such as those forces applied by a rider on a bicycle. The drive mechanism includes input bevel gears meshed with corresponding output bevel gears coupled to a common power output shaft through clutches that effect a rotary power output at the power output shaft in response to the reciprocating power input from the substantially linear forces. Opposite crank arms are coupled with the input bevel gears such that each crank arm is advanced by an applied substantially linear force, and is retracted upon advancement of the opposite crank arm. In a bicycle, opposite pedals are coupled to corresponding crank arms and are moved through predetermined power strokes in response to substantially linear forces applied by a rider to effect corresponding rotational movements of the input bevel gears and concomitant rotary power output at the power output shaft.

The solution is expensive and heavy, delivering about the same return of movement as a levers or pulleys, and has visible disadvantages that drive to a new bicycle design removed by the present solution.

United States Patent Application No.: US 2012/0186388, the inventor Al Zani teaches a crank mechanism for bicycles, in particular racing bicycles on roads, unpaved roads or tracks, includes a winch rod, pedaling members coupled with an end of the rod, and an arm of a connecting rod, of which one end is rotatably coupled with respect to the rod in correspondence of the end of the rod.

The pedaling means are rigidly fixed to an opposite end of said arm.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,453 B2, inventor Jeeng-Neng Fan, teaches a reciprocal upward and downward pedaling bicycle structure includes a main shaft of a free wheel at a chain wheel shaft, a driving body pivotally coupled to a frame of the main shaft, a pedal crank and a support rod on the driving body, and a driving belt linked to the main shaft and the support rod. An end of the driving belt is dragged to the frame by a resilient element. By the action of the resilient element ends the rotation of the main shaft, the crank and pedal are pulled by the driving belt to provide an upward bounce and the chain wheel drives the rear wheel shaft through the main driving belt.

When the pedal is stepped downward, the main shaft and the chain wheel are rotated synchronously to drive the rear wheel of the bicycle to move forward.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,341,267 B2, inventor David H. Vroom, teaches about a reversible ratchet mechanism includes a pair of roller clutches set to operate in opposite directions when engaged by a belt. During the forward motion of the ratchet assembly in either direction of propulsion of the belt, one roller clutch is disengaged while the other is engaged and locked, thereby propelling the belt. During the backward stroke, the engaged roller clutch is free to rotate. The result is that the reciprocating motion of the assembly is converted into the linear motion of the belt. The ratchet assembly includes a shift mechanism to reverse the engagement of the roller clutches and change the direction of propulsion of the belt produced by the push/pull action of the operator. The invention is advantageously used in conjunction with a wheelchair.

United States Patent Application US 2006/0066072, entitled LEVER ENHANCED PEDALING SYSTEM, the inventor Rashad Na'im Scarborough, teaches about a bicycle free from the conditions of having any part of the bicycle in the area between its wheels or horizontally adjacent to that area, except its pedal member and frontal portions of levers. A bicycle with two lever propulsion machines having two levers formed in an approximate “L” shape. The shorter side of the “L” would be closely vertical and longer side would be closely horizontal when either lever is rotated to its lowest position. The pedaling system can also reciprocate with use of a high strength chain 6, having ends connected to the mid-portion of its levers.

This chain can be pulled over at least one mounted sprocket, mounted to the frame. Each lever is suspended above the ground by their connection to a member pivotal arm suspended within the frame. The bicycle further has a reverse mechanism to enable the bicycle to move backwards

A 1981 French patent, FR 2726532 patent Toulet Claude who used a gear system to power a riding device from the legs reciprocator movement using two levers with pedals to apply the movement.

United States Patent Application US 2007/0228687 entitled BICYCLE PROPULSION MECHANISM inventor: Rodger Parker, discloses a mechanism for propelling a bicycle through rectilinear reciprocation of the pedals. The mechanism includes a crank lever, which when forced by the drivers legs, pushes a drive arm that, in turn, rotates a drive wheel. The rotation of the drive wheel transmits a torque to the bicycles rear wheel via a gearing mechanism. A guide lever meanwhile maintains the proper position of the crank lever throughout its reciprocating cycle.

In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,649A, Slocum, Jr. teaches a solution for bicyclists having one leg shorter than the other, a crank and pedal assembly is provided to more evenly distribute the forces exerted by both legs when pedaling a bicycle. The crank and pedal assembly includes a drive axle rotatably mounted on a bicycle frame, and a chain-wheel eccentrically mounted on the axle. A pair of crank arms extend generally perpendicularly away from the drive axle in opposite directions from one another, and pedals are rotatably mounted to the free ends of each crank arm in a traditional manner. The pedals are ‘so mounted, however, to position the bottoms of the balls of the rider's feet to be offset from the axis of rotation of the respective pedals by the same distance but in opposite directions when the crank arms are vertically disposed. More specifically, the pedals are mounted such that the balls of the rider's feet are each offset a distance equivalent to one-half of the difference in the lengths of the rider's legs. The pedal for the rider's shorter leg is mounted so as to position the ball of the respective foot above the pedal spindle. Conversely, the pedal for the rider's longer leg is mounted so as to position the ball of the respective foot below the pedal spindle.

The present invention reduces the inconvenience of having a complex, expensive, sensitive to shocks, hard to maintain, mechanism, most often unfit in the actual bicycle structures, requiring a new customized design of the whole assembly, by promoting a simple adaptor device that uses the same pedal for stepping and pedaling with minor changes.

DEFINITIONS

Outdoors/riding experience=a data stream that contains the path description, it's 3D or 2D movie and surrounding sound, together with associated data time, GPS, accelerations and other time related measurements presented in a standardized mode, easy to transmit and reproduce.

pedal's crank mechanical accessory=a mechanical device mounted on the crank lever or directly replacing it that allows stepping and pedaling at request (button selection) and controlled multiplication factor of the movement conversion in order to maintain all the rest of the vehicle structure unchanged

vital and operational parameters=a person vital signs as pulse rate, oxygen level, temperature, EKG, breathing rate, air intake flow, etc. and operational parameters are the body components positions, movements, electro-myo-graphic signals, sound and vibration, in the body parts, temperature, etc.

outdoor device with servo-actuators—a vehicle having autonomous remote control for steering and traction, equilibrium, etc. in order to ride, or to compensate for the lack of action of the human rider.

standardized compact communication=an Internet communication, that transmit only competition relevant information, allowing the local computer to calculate and simulate the current environment. For example just the GPS (time) for competitors and the local computer will calculate their appearance and place them on the local screen, while the positions and forces are calculated from the local data.

SUMMARY

The present invention consists in a set of mechanical accessories that may be attached on the pedal's crank or may replace the pedal's crank and provide both stepping and pedaling options to be easy selectable by the push of a button. The mechanical accessory may be used to convert any reciprocating movement into rotation, and may be used on many human muscle powered vehicles as bicycles (bikes), tricycles (trikes), light 4 wheels vehicles, wheelchairs, boats, energy generators, etc. The bike is the typical example used in the descriptions and one biking experience was the seed that triggered the development of the present patent that presently is not limited to bicycles.

The present mechanical accessory has the pedals customized to hold force sensors with their associated electronics and position sensors, that transmit an unified signal to a data acquisition device mounted on vehicle. On the vehicle there are adaptors to hold other sensors as GPS, accelerometers, weather monitoring, wind speed, sound, image, rider's forces in the seat, movement multiplication factors (in pedal adaptor, bike's gears), brakes forces, wheels' rpm, suspensions position, and a set or utility sensors for safety or cyclist's study as magnetic, gas, radiation, etc., that transmit the data to the same data acquisition module. A set of customized electronics may be added on the rider, to measure the vital and operational parameters of the rider, and transmit via wifi in the vehicle's computer-data acquisition system, that will make specialized reports for the rider. A dedicated computer processes the data and sent instant reports on the local display and via a wireless connection communicates with a cell phone and broadcast some of the data. This system records the rider's path and the “outdoors experience”.

Our preliminary scientific and economic study showed that the actual pedaling style has many qualities and the crank-pedal-sprocket-chain system is simple, reliable and cheap, driving the leg in a smooth natural movement where more than 9 muscles actively contribute to the movement. Stepping, on the other hand, is a more energy efficient movement, that requires lower force range, but is more repetitive, boring and unsuitable for higher repetition rates, while all the developed systems are not really fit to the job.

The problem become, on how to make a device that to maintain the entire riding device system and to allow the stepping as a supplementary function with minimal modifications, at a minimal cost and maximum reliability in order to increase the functionality of the riding device. The resulting device is a crank adaptor that allows the pedal to have a reciprocal or revolution movement, installed on the crank and using the bicycle's chain system to transmit the force to wheel.

The measurements also showed that variable transmission ratios are needed to make the compatibility of the stepper with the actual pedal and to compensate for the difficulty of high rate stepping, that generated a more complex adapter, acting as a gear. The gear is leaving the initial spinning speed induced by the ratchets to the crank's chain ring, it doubles it to make equivalent with the pedals, or it multiplies by a factor of 4 or more to make it equivalent with high speed pedaling, and all these functions have been incorporated in the pedal's crank mechanical accessory.

The measurements also showed that the recurrent reciprocating movement is done at the pedals, by a complementary action of the legs, one helping the other to reach the right position to develop the propulsion force. In the stepper this device was done by using levers or pulleys and cables, or simply independent springs, each having qualities and weaknesses, offered as alternatives in the kit set.

Another weakness discovered during the test was the noise in the ratchet device, correlated with a half of ratchet gear's tooth lagging that might become important for high repetition rate and smaller angular range. The devices developed are relying on friction clutch identical with operation principle with that used in cars with manual transmission, magnet locks and electromagnetic devices that are taking from the energy but bring some riding comfort.

The mechanical accessory is an universal bike crank adaptor set, that may turn in minutes the circular pedaling mode into a stepping reciprocating mode, where the cyclist have the opportunity to step in front of the crank bearing or after it, depending on its terrain and riding regime. It may also be applied in recumbent bikes, and exercise bikes increasing their functionality and performances.

The recorded data, is transferred into home computer or in our computer separated into private and shareable information and the shareable data is transmitted via internet FTP and processed in our web server being sent back as reports, and based on owner's agreement being posted for sale or share for free.

The sharable data containing the movie and the result of the usage of the electronics, sensors (force, speed, torque, temperature, pressure humidity, electro-voltaic (muscles electric signal), position, acceleration, GPS, etc) and actuators, and third party image acquisition may make the riding experience more complex, and that can be transmitted and reproduced on a indoors device—exercise bike system—that becomes a ride simulator, that adapts the data stream to the local use regime, based on a local computing system, running our program, being a useful tool to improve the indoor experience into outdoors, when the weather is bad, or experiencing remotely located riding circuits.

The system will bring the gym room to outdoors and the outdoors in the gym-room and enhance the sporting experience into medical practice, active monitoring, diagnosis and recovery. Equipping an outdoor device with servo-actuators, a person from indoor placed on an exercise device with direct radio-communication may ride the outdoor device in real-time with or without rider, that will be good for education purposes and for therapy.

The internet site will allow virtual competitions among the indoors devices, on various remote circuits, using just their indoor device placed anywhere in the world using the standardized compact communication. For example competitors located in US, Japan, Europe, Brazil, compete on virtual ‘Tour de France” using their exercise bike systems. Other riding deices, as treadmills may be used as well, but might be inappropriate due to the speed differences, marathon-running style might be the lower limit of application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1—Bike's propulsion mechanism.

FIG. 2A—Rider's upper body position on a racing bike, with legs at the middle of the pedal's range.

FIG. 2B—Rider legs position when the pedal crank is vertical.

FIG. 3A—Forces application on the bike's elements.

FIG. 3B—A detail on the pedal-crank with respect to forces application.

FIG. 3C—Relative position of the feet as a function of crank angle.

FIG. 3D—Magnitude of the force perpendicular on the crank arm for every 30 degreed.

FIG. 3E—Leg muscles timing diagram as function of crank angle.

FIG. 4A—Perspective view of a bicycle that uses the stepping propulsion mechanism.

FIG. 4B—Device used in the actual stepper bikes to provide the reciprocating movement correlation, being a gear similar to those used in automotive differentials.

FIG. 5A—A schematic diagram of an exercise recumbent bike equipped with data acquisition devices, being our experiment, made in order to better understand the differences between the stepping and pedaling.

FIG. 5B—The results obtained in the comparative measurement on the recumbent exercise bike for stepping versus pedaling propulsion modes.

FIG. 6A—An exploded view the crank-pedal adaptor accessory device an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6B—A new type of improved ratchet mechanism meant to allow easier change of stepping quadrant and switching back to pedaling by the turn of a knob.

FIG. 7A—A schematic view of a pedal's crank adaptor device with the capability of fixed ratio multiplying the range of the action in a chain-wheel gear.

FIG. 7B—A schematic diagram a chain multiplication device with multiple ratios.

FIG. 7C—A version of the pedal-crank adaptor using a continuous variable ratio stepper range amplifier.

FIG. 7D—A schematic diagram of the pedaling-stepping switch assembly.

FIG. 8A—Another solution to the ratcheted arm, in cross section using clutches, similar to those used in automotive industry.

FIG. 8B—A schematic view in section along the rotation axis, of an alternative propulsion mode, based on friction.

FIG. 8C—A lateral view of a double pedal used for stepper bike, in a pantograph setup.

FIG. 9A—A schematic view of the electronic modules that have to be added on a bike or exercise bike to monitor, record and share the rider's experiences.

FIG. 9B—Details in the pedal sensor in a schematic diagram.

FIG. 9C—Block diagram of the body parameter recording synchronous with the bike's parameters.

FIG. 9D electronic data acquisition system schematic diagram.

FIG. 10—A complete use of the system in a schematic diagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Initially, the inventors consider that most of the problems generated by the actual pedaling are due to the bad matching between the cyclist muscle action pattern and the needed force at wheel, and therefore we develop a new method of propulsion with a more advanced tool, that uses a modular adaptor that allows switching easy from the pedaling to stepping mode. The assembly comes as the present bikes as an accessory, and in the simplest method is used to install on the crank.

After building the test bench, and performing scientific experiments the inventors realized that pedaling has a set of valuable features and bio-medical advantages obtained at a very low cost, that slowed down the expansion of the stepping bikes, that are more expensive, and has less physio-therapeutic benefits, but exhibits a higher anatomic energetic efficiency inside some operation limits. This unique knowledge, and imagination has driven us to understand what is missing and lead us to the creation of a set of accessory devices that added to the actual riding devices may drastically improve the user experience indoors and outdoors.

In order to use the accessory device the biker may opt just to dismantle the pedal and mount in its place the pedal crank adaptor, and on it mount back the original pedal, or the biker may dismantle the pedal crank and mount the crank pedal-stepper adaptor and have both functions as stepping and pedaling on the same bike simultaneously, selected by a push of a button. This accessory adaptor is an embodiment of the present invention.

Pedal adaptor has a stepping range adaptor, that can multiply the pedal's action by a factor of 1, 2, 4, and 8 times that allows the stepping bike to be used for a large range of speed, keeping the process inside ergonomic limits, is another embodiment of the present invention.

The user may add the rest of the developed accessory devices, containing electronics, that may allow him further improve the rider experience ant its uses. The electronics embedded in the pedal may provide an accurate recording of the effort during the riding experience, useful for fitness purposes. This is yet another embodiment of the present invention.

More electronic devices may track all riding device's parameters and even augment the action by using the embedded servo-actuators. As the present invention describes there are various plug-in systems that add the riding device's parameters and the riding parameters obtaining a complete record of the riding experience as an embodiment of the present invention.

The data may be transferred to a multi-processor system or an Internet based computer, where it is depersonalized and converted into a unitary file that is made available for other users, via Internet. When a user downloads it, it is customized on the new user parameters, and made compatible with the indoors device planned to be used to reproduce the riding experience.

The indoor device is reproducing all the details recorded by the initial user and creator of the “riding experience” that is now shared. Supplementary accessory devices are provided to adapt the indoor device for reproducing the outdoor experience.

Other set of accessories are used to use an indoor device to remotely control an outdoor device, for educational and research purposes, as well for living assistance operations.

2. BEST MODE OF THE INVENTION

FIGS. 1 to 5 and 7 A to 7C represents the prior art. FIGS. 5A and B represents our scientific investigation, that helped us to learn the physiotherapeutic aspects of pedaling and helped us to understand the economic issues that made stepping less attractive than pedaling, and made stepper-bikes have little demand on markets. FIGS. 9 and 10 shows the best mode contemplated by the inventors that makes he riding experience complete, and shareable.

As all know, riding is not possible all the time, when weather is bad indoors riding may be as proficient as outdoors. In order to be as proficient one will need to modify the exercise bike, in order to simulate an outdoors path, similar to the actual flights simulators.

In order to make possible that users have their own most preferred neighborhood paths on the exercise bike at home or indoors, and maybe share on internet, the bike's pedal accessory comes with a set of electronic devices that records the path details—GPS coordinates, slope, terrain type in simple or stereoscopic image) bicyclist's effort, medical parameters and more.

In both accessories it may also contain micro-electronic arrays of sensors that are performing blood parameter measurements, muscle electric signals, etc., to control in real time the equipment operation.

As an example, we like a path on mountain road near our house. We install the pedal accessory, with the associated electronics and we record the path. Next day it is raining, so we take our recording and download into our exercise bike, also equipped with pedal accessory, and control electronics. The image will be projected in the stereoscopic goggles or TV display, while the force simulator will reproduce the terrain particularities from the effort point of view. Both equipment, outdoors and indoors may be improved, and made to measure the body's parameters. It also allows the biker know how much effort was done and what might be the weight loss in order to achieve the optimum health.

The associated software application may run on a large variety of devices, to which it gets the process measurement data via wifi or cable. The complete system being composed of a mobile system having data acquisition and local processing capabilities on a large variety of mobile devices as smart-phones, tablets, mobile computing platforms and remote via mobile internet on a stationary computers, and a indoors system that has rendering and simulation capabilities of the previously acquired data, and local measurement and computing capabilities of the process data.

The accessories closes the loop outdoors-indoors riding and the acquired data may be used for medicine physiotherapy and leisure improving the bike riding experience from pedaling to stepping in various positions and environment conditions.

We intend to record another path, during bad weather, we install the actuators on the outdoors device, and using the indoor riding device we remote control the outdoor device, that is going on terrain recording the outdoor conditions, that we further playback on the indoor device or analyze for study. We may also use the remote control system to teach beginners how to ride, or to do recovery medicine, using muscle stimulation and augmented navigation.

3. HOW TO MAKE THE INVENTION

As can be seen from the drawings, the bike's pedal adaptor improvement is the first significant advance. It may be produced in several variants:

the simple pedal crank adaptor, that allows uni-position stepping and pedaling;

the crank adaptor that contains a multiplicative chain-ring gear box;

the pedal adaptor that replaces the crank and pedal with the new stepper/pedal device; that may be applied both to the bike and exercise bike, customized on bike's type.

The pedal has a force/pressure sensor with the associated electronics that continuously measures the force on each leg as a function of crank and wheels angles. The electronic system also measures the rpm in the crank and wheels, the gps and acceleration as function of time, and may record weather information and landscape images.

The bicyclist may also wear a Data Acquisition Gear (DAQG) that continuously measures the vital parameters and a set of dedicated parameters with respect to the body displacement system, and transmits that to the bike's computing system. Satellite navigation and tracking system may be added.

The indoor exercise bike may be programmed to follow a track previously recorded. The movie with the path is played on a 3D projector (LCD-TV or TV goggles).

The force in pedals is transmitted to the bike load regime actuator and the forces in pedals are measured, together with all the other parameters previously recorded. This system will become a simulator of custom made paths. A dedicated website will share all the paths among users that may load a Miami Beach ride or “tour de France”, etc. and freely share and download in their exercise bike.

The system as conceived might have multiple applications such as:

Recuperation medicine where the patient will make controlled exercise and the DAQG will be enhanced with muscle stimulator devices.

Physiotherapy using the pedaling and stepping movements in various body positions as sitting as on recumbent bike's seat, or standing as on a regular bike or exercise bike.

Sports and fitness the mobile and exercise bikes being used in tandem

Education and leisure programs.

There will be several types of pedal adaptors developed in order to meet the needs of the applications, everything being in a modular structure that allows cost optimization also.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1—Presents as prior art a schematic view of bike's propulsion mechanism that is made of:

-   -   11—Frame     -   12—Rear wheel     -   13—Crank hub     -   14—Opening     -   15—Crank assembly     -   16—Central connector portion     -   17—Integral straight crank     -   18—extended curved crank     -   19—enlarged lower ends or heads     -   20—threaded openings     -   21—threaded stud     -   22—conventional bicycle pedal     -   23—conventional sprocket     -   24—crank sprocket boss     -   25—bicycle sprocket chain     -   26—rear sprocket     -   27—rear wheel hub     -   32—Enlargement     -   35—extender     -   45—screw     -   47, 48—washer

FIG. 2A—Shows the rider's upper body position on a racing bike, with legs at the

-   -   201—middle of the pedal's range.     -   201—Bicyclist on the bike     -   202—Bike's structure     -   203—Bike's seat     -   204—hip joint     -   205—body axis     -   206—helmet     -   207—leg axis, with center of mass     -   208—rear wheel     -   209—shin center of mass     -   210—bike's frame,     -   211—front stifling wheel

FIG. 2B shows rider legs position when the pedal crank is vertical

-   -   220—pedal     -   221—Rider's body     -   222—bike's frame     -   223—bike's saddle     -   224—hip joint     -   225 body's axis     -   226—hip joint previous position     -   227—body upwards movement from saddle     -   229—shin's center of mass initial position     -   233—bike chain     -   250—bike's frame     -   251—bike's front wheel     -   252—shin's center of mass path     -   253—shin's center of mass final position     -   254—foot,     -   257—thigh center of mass initial position     -   258—thigh's center of mass radial trajectory     -   259—thigh center of mass final position

FIG. 3A shows forces application on the bike's elements.

-   -   301—bike's frame     -   302—body weight force     -   303—bike's saddle     -   304—rear wheel tire     -   305—wheel's chain     -   306—wheel radius L3     -   307—force F2, in the chain     -   308—radius L4.     -   309—active force in the tire/ground interface     -   310—torque in the wheel     -   311—chain-wheel     -   312—chain-wheel radius L2     -   314—crank's arm     -   315—torque     -   316—pedal     -   318—leg applied force F1,     -   317—shoe sole     -   319—perpendicular force acting on the crank's arm

FIG. 3B—shows a detail on the pedal-crank with respect to forces application

-   -   321—leg; shin     -   322—the shin's axis     -   323—ankle     -   324—angle between foot and shin     -   325—foot axis     -   326—shoe sole     -   327—chain wheel     -   328—traction force     -   329—torque in the crank axis     -   330—crank arm     -   331—pedal axis     -   332—perpendicular force Fy     -   333—tangential force Fx     -   334—resultant force built in pedal axis     -   335—force perpendicular on the crank arm     -   336—force along the crank arm

FIG. 3C shows the relative position of the feet as a function of crank angle.

-   -   341—feet     -   342—chain-wheel     -   343—first quadrant     -   344—pedal     -   345—leg     -   346—second quadrant

FIG. 3D shows the magnitude of the force perpendicular on the crank arm for every 30 degreed.

-   -   350—crank angle     -   351—pushes the crank in forward direction     -   352—one third of the rotation with negative force     -   353—rotation     -   355—positive component     -   356—negative force that is slowing down the crank

FIG. 3E shows the leg muscles timing diagram as function of crank angle.

-   -   360—crank arm     -   361—rotation with the domain of action of each leg muscle     -   362—leg with main muscles and body axis     -   363—hip joint     -   364—hip angle     -   365—thigh's axis     -   366—thigh     -   367—knee angle     -   368—shin's axis     -   369—shin     -   370—feet axis     -   371—ankle angle     -   372—soleus muscles     -   373—muscle rectus fumoris     -   374—vastii muscles     -   375—hamstrings muscles     -   376—gluteus maximus muscles     -   377—gastrocnemious muscles

FIG. 4A is an illustration in perspective view of a bicycle that uses the stepping propulsion mechanism

-   -   400—stepper bicycle,     -   401—bicycle frame,     -   402—seat stays of the bicycle frame 401,     -   403—the frame stems,     -   404—the rear wheel hub,     -   405—rear wheel.     -   406—crank levers,     -   407—pedals     -   408—guide levers,     -   409—drive arms,     -   410—drive wheels,     -   411—frame stems     -   412—gearing cables

FIG. 4B shows the device used in the actual stepper bikes to provide the reciprocating movement correlation, being a gear similar to those used in automotive differentials

-   -   420—planetary gears shafts     -   421—gear bearing     -   422—satellite gear     -   423—satellite gear     -   424—ratchet like mechanism     -   425—gear tooth     -   426—shaft     -   427—planetary gears

FIG. 5A—shows a schematic diagram of an exercise recumbent bike equipped with data acquisition devices, being our experiment, made in order to better understand the differences between the stepping and pedaling.

-   -   501—rider     -   502—recumbent seat     -   503—recumbent exercise bike     -   504—force sensors back seat     -   505—force sensors seat     -   506—rider's hands     -   507—Electro-Myo-Graphic (EMG) sensor     -   508—legs     -   509—pedals     -   510—inertial spinning disk     -   511—pedal's crank-arm adaptor     -   512—pedal force and position sensors     -   513—RPM and brake position sensors     -   514—wires     -   515—data acquisition (DAQ) system

FIG. 5B—shows the results obtained in the comparative measurement on the recumbent exercise bike for stepping versus pedaling propulsion modes.

-   -   521—chart     -   522—abscises     -   523—left ordinate     -   524—right ordinate     -   525—Key/Legend     -   526—DI signal for crank arm initial position     -   527—(RPM_P) inertial disk revolution speed for pedaling     -   528—(RPM_S) inertial disk revolution speed for stepping     -   529—Left_S, left leg force on pedal in stepping mode     -   530—Right_S, right leg force on pedal in stepping mode     -   533—W_S, mechanical work made for stepping     -   534—W_P, mechanical work made for pedaling     -   535—Left_P, left leg force on pedal in pedaling mode     -   536—Right_P, right leg force on pedal in pedaling mode     -   537—DI from the hall effect switch after a complete revolution         of 360 degrees

FIG. 6A—shows in an exploded view the crank-pedal adaptor accessory device an embodiment of the present invention.

-   -   600—bicycle's usual pedal assembly     -   601—crank pin     -   602—washer     -   603—washer     -   604—spacer tube     -   605—spacer tube     -   606—crank arm     -   607—crank arm     -   609—screw     -   610—screw     -   611—profiled tube     -   612—profiled tube     -   613—screw     -   614—screw     -   615—knob     -   616—knob     -   617—profiled tube adaptor a hexagonal structure     -   618—profiled tube adaptor a hexagonal structure     -   619—metal ribbon     -   620—fittings     -   621—screws     -   622—ratchet     -   623—ratchet     -   625—ratcheted arm     -   626—ratcheted arm     -   627—pedal axis     -   628—pedal axis     -   629—pedal     -   630—pedal     -   631—extender connector     -   632—spacer rod     -   633—connection hole     -   634—connection hole     -   635—first degree lever     -   636—bike frame     -   637—connection hole     -   638—connection hole     -   639—spacer rod     -   640—extender connector

FIG. 6B—shows a new type of improved ratchet mechanism meant to allow easier change of stepping quadrant and switching back to pedaling by the turn of a knob

-   -   641—hinge     -   642—pad actuation cable     -   643—pad actuation cable     -   644—elastic spring     -   645—elastic spring     -   646—ratcheted arm     -   655—ratchet mechanism housing     -   656—lateral sides of the ratchet mechanism case     -   657—triangular or trapezoidal tooth     -   658—hexagonal hole     -   659—independent blade     -   660—independent blade

FIG. 7A—shows a schematic view of a pedal's crank adaptor device with the capability of fixed ratio multiplying the range of the action in a chain-wheel gear.

-   -   701—central rod     -   702—lower part of the bike's frame     -   703—special double pedal     -   704—special double pedal     -   705—front pedal     -   706—front pedal     -   707—rear pedal     -   708—rear pedal     -   709—ratchet mechanism     -   710—ratchet mechanism     -   711—cable     -   712—cable     -   713—central rod     -   714—crank ball bearings     -   715—arm adapter     -   716—arm adapter     -   717—range adapter arms     -   718—range adapter arms     -   719—lever     -   720—bike frame     -   721—bike's chain wheel ratio changer set     -   722—clutch     -   723—chain wheel     -   724—support tight on the bike's frame     -   725—ball-bearing outer ring     -   726—driving rod     -   727—transmission chain     -   728—upper chain wheel     -   729—axial, central rod     -   730—upper ball-bearing     -   731—bracket     -   732—chain-wheel     -   733—final training chain-wheel     -   734—transmission chain

FIG. 7B—shows another embodiment of the present invention, in a schematic diagram a chain multiplication device with multiple ratios

-   -   741—spindle cylinder     -   742—needle bearings a tube     -   743—ratcheted arms rod     -   744—ratcheted arm     -   745—ratcheted arm     -   746—pedal     -   747—pedal     -   748—tube with ball-bearings     -   749—support     -   750—double action clutch     -   751—chain-wheel     -   752—chained wheel     -   753—transmission chain     -   754—upper chain-wheel     -   755—axis     -   756—chain-wheel     -   757—clutch     -   758—chain-wheel     -   759—clutch     -   760—chain-wheel     -   761—chain     -   762—chain-wheel     -   763—chain-wheel     -   764—transmission chain     -   765—chain-wheel     -   766—clutch     -   767—transmission chain

FIG. 7C is showing a version of the pedal-crank adaptor using a continuous variable ratio stepper range amplifier.

-   -   741—spindle cylinder     -   742—needle bearings a tube     -   743—ratcheted arms rod     -   744—ratcheted arms     -   745—ratcheted arms     -   746—pedals     -   747—pedals     -   748—tube with ball-bearings     -   749—support     -   750—double action clutch     -   751—clutch     -   752—chained wheel     -   753—transmission chain     -   754—upper chain-wheel     -   755—axis rod     -   760—chain-wheel     -   770-775—trapezoidal gear system     -   770—conic wheels     -   771—actuation lever     -   772—conic wheels     -   773—beaded transmission cord     -   774—conical wheels     -   775—conical wheels

FIG. 7D—Represents a schematic diagram of the pedaling-stepping switch assembly.

-   -   741—bike crank's spindle     -   743—main rod     -   744—ratcheted arms     -   745—ratcheted arms     -   746—pedal     -   747—pedal     -   749—bike's frame     -   776—ratchet with double actuation     -   777—disks mounted tight on the ratcheted arm     -   778—ratchet with double actuation     -   779—disk mounted tight on the ratcheted arm     -   780—Stepping gear     -   781—Stepping gear     -   783—hole     -   784—adjustment rod     -   785—actuator     -   786—hole     -   787—adjustment rod     -   788—actuators     -   789—actuators     -   790—lever     -   791—actuators     -   792—actuators     -   793—Bike's driving wheel speed changer     -   794—Bike's pedal chain-wheel changer

FIG. 8A—Shows another solution to the ratcheted arm, in cross section using clutches, similar to those used in automotive industry

-   -   801—pedal arm     -   802—central rod     -   803—ball-bearing     -   804—arm adapter     -   805—hinge     -   806—range adapter arms     -   807—lever     -   808—disk     -   809—bump     -   810—eccentric role     -   811—pedal elastic support     -   812—pedal     -   813—elastic spring

FIG. 8B shows a schematic view in section along the rotation axis, of an alternative propulsion mode, based on friction.

-   -   815—chain-wheel     -   816—double action clutch     -   817—training tube     -   818—pedal's chain-wheels     -   819—transmission chain

FIG. 8C shows a lateral view of a double pedal used for stepper bike, in a pantograph setup.

-   -   831—disk     -   832—ball-bearing, or ratchet     -   833—pedals' arm     -   834—metal sheet, pantograph device     -   835—front pedal     -   836—rear pedal     -   837—vertical tube     -   838—vertical tube     -   839—bolts,     -   840—bolts     -   841—tube     -   842—bolt     -   843—attitude adjustment

FIG. 9A shows a schematic view of the electronic modules that have to be added on a bike or exercise bike to monitor, record and share the rider's experiences.

-   -   900—bike or exercise bike     -   901—bike's frame     -   902—electronics box to control the steering     -   903—data acquisition and processing device     -   904—local wifi and radio data communication     -   905—wheel     -   906—electronics box     -   907—driving chain wheel set electronics box     -   908 driving chain wheel set     -   909—wheel speed and breaking parameters measurement system     -   910—pedal's chain-wheel     -   911—accessory device status sensor array     -   912—crank angle measurement sensor     -   913—pedal measurement setup     -   914—pedal     -   915—force in pedal and pedal's angle sensors

FIG. 9B shows details in the pedal sensor in a schematic diagram.

-   -   920—central rod axis     -   921—pedal arm     -   922—pedal bolt     -   923—angle measurement device     -   924—pedal     -   925—pedal support     -   926—second degree double lever, hinge     -   927—pedal's axis     -   928—force sensors     -   929—electronics adaptor box

FIG. 9C shows the block diagram of the body parameter recording synchronous with the bike's parameters.

-   -   931—bike     -   932—rider     -   933—electronic data measurement and control with a central         electronic system     -   934—stereoscopic cameras     -   935—vials DAQ (Data AcQuisition)     -   936—local electronics box     -   937—wifi to cell phone module     -   938—body parameters DAQ     -   939—EMG (Electro-Myo-Graphy) DAQ     -   940—leg DAQ     -   941—pedal angle, position and force DAQ

FIG. 9D shows the most important signals in a schematic diagram of the electronic data acquisition system made of several electronics modules working independently, in parallel but accumulating data in a common area, and using as needed.

-   -   943—other information to DAQ     -   944—pedal's arm position relative to the riding device sensor     -   945—position of the pedal sensor     -   946—force sensor     -   947—rechargeable batteries     -   948—micro-controller unit     -   949—wireless communication     -   950—bike pedal data acquisition module     -   951—bike pedal data acquisition module     -   952—electronic module that acquires data and controls the riding         device     -   953—rider's DAQ     -   954—indoor applications module     -   955—multi-processor system     -   956—remote processing unit     -   960—stereoscopic display     -   961—stereoscopic TV goggles     -   962—sound tracks (mono to sound-surround, etc.)     -   963—tilt actuators     -   964—heating device     -   965—light source     -   966—fan with humidifier and smell actuator     -   970—set of cameras     -   971—microphones     -   972—riding device steering breaks measurement and actuators     -   973—riding device propulsion parameters as the pedaling/stepping         accessory device regimes, gears shifter positions, transmitted         force, speed and positions of the wheels together with Earth         locator GPS coordinates, accelerations measurement and actuator         devices     -   974—environment parameters DAQ     -   975—utility power control     -   977—multi-processor array     -   978—memory     -   979—communication sub-module     -   980—pulse rate and oxygen level in blood monitor sub-module     -   981—chest functions as EKG and respiratory functions sub-module     -   982—facial mask is measuring the air intake flow and the exhaust         residual oxygen and carbon dioxide module     -   983—kinematics of movement, monitoring the body's parts angles,         electro-myo-graphic (EMG) functions, noise in joints, and         muscles, temperatures, etc., specialized sensor array     -   984—other functions     -   985—communication sub-module     -   986—transmission line, towards the multiprocessing system 955     -   990—universal definition path line processor     -   991—Internet transactions specialized server

FIG. 10 shows a complete use of the system in a schematic diagram.

-   -   1001—Earth locator     -   1002—rider     -   1003—pedaling/stepper adaptor     -   1004—central electronics     -   1005—rider's system     -   1006—stereoscopic camera     -   1007—data to cloud     -   1008—current cloud remote location     -   1009—dedicated computer system     -   1010—Experience Interchange Library (EIL)     -   1011—Indoor EIL user's computer system     -   1012—EIL delivery cloud     -   1013—EIL customer's computer     -   1014—indoor rider     -   1015—exercise bike     -   1016—actuators     -   1017—stereoscopic display     -   1018—goggles stereo TV     -   1019—local RF communication     -   1020—robotic bike     -   1021—real-time broadband communication

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a portion of a conventional bicycle, which includes a frame 11, a rear wheel 12 and a crank hub 13 having an opening 14. The crank assembly is shown in the form of the one piece or integral forged.

It consists of a central connector portion, with an integral straight crank 17 and an oppositely extended curved crank 18, each of which is provided with enlarged lower ends or heads 19 having threaded openings 20, appropriately threaded in either a right or left hand direction to receive the conventional threaded stud 21 of a conventional bicycle pedal 22. The central connector 16 may be provided with threaded portions and shoulder portions including a shoulder upon which′ a conventional sprocket 23 is mounted and engaged by a crank sprocket boss 24 for rotating the sprocket and driving the bicycle sprocket chain 25 which in turn engages the rear sprocket 26 mounted on the rear wheel hub 27. The foregoing describes a conventional one-piece assembly.

A conventional three-piece crank assembly, of the type commonly used on European manufactured bicycles. Such assembly usually comprises a pair of straight cranks, and a separate connector shaft, which is journalled through the bicycle hub 13. Each crank includes an opening formed in an enlarged upper end for receiving and fastening to the connector 29. The lower end of each crank is provided 10 with a threaded pedal stud-receiving opening, usually of a metric type of thread and either left hand or right hand in direction.

The extender, generally designated as 35, is formed to fit on the end portions of any of the foregoing types 15 of cranks. Thus, the extender is formed of a channel shaped metal stamping, preferably of springy material, with a roughly flat base and integral legs, which may extend along the sides of the base and continue around the lower end of the base to completely enclose the base except for its upper end. An elongated slit is formed in the upper end of the base and terminates in a widened opening to provide greater springiness of the upper end of the extender portion and particularly to permit resilient movement of the leg portions 10-25 cut on opposite sides of the slits. The crank extender is hold in place by the screw 45, and washers 47,48.

FIG. 2A—Shows the rider's upper body position on a racing bike, with legs at the middle of the pedal's range.

The racing bike's 202 rider 201 is sitting on the bike seat 203 that is adjusted at the proper height. The body axis 205 is tilted forward 45-50 degrees, in order to bring the position of upper body center of mass in the center of the bike, above the pedal axis. The body axis 205 meets in the hip joint 204 the leg axis 207 and forms a sharp angle a little less than 90 degrees. The thigh's center of mass 207 is slightly above the bike's frame while the shin's center of mass 209 is almost circling in the center of the bike's frame 210. The bikes has two wheels with tubes and tires; the rear wheel 208 that is the driving wheel and the front wheel 211 that is used for steering. The weight distribution is gently placed 60%-70% on the rear wheel 208 and up to 40% on the steering wheel, 211 by design, in order to optimize the dynamic balance of forces during riding on variable terrains.

FIG. 2B shows rider legs position when the pedal crank is vertical.

The Rider's body 221 maintains its axis 225 tilted on the same angle over the bike, and the hip joint 224 moves slightly backwards not to far from its previous position 226, having a slight upwards movement 227, rider's but rising from the saddle 223, because the leg 254, 259 is pushing in the pedal 220. The center of mass on upper leg moved from the previous position 257 above the bike's frame 222 on a radial trajectory 258 in a position under the frame tube 259, while the other leg did a similar motion upwards, such as the position of the combined center of mass remained in about same position. The shin's center of mass moved from the position 229 following a path 252 to the lower position 253, while the other leg had an opposite movement and the variation of the potential energy of the legs remained null. The force was used only for kinetic moment variation only for a small part of it not fully compensated by the antiphrasis displacement of the legs.

FIG. 3A shows forces application on the bike's elements.

The bike frame 301 makes the distribution of force between the wheels. When the rider is sitting on the bike's saddle 303 a force equal with its body weight 302 is applied in the frame and distributed to wheels 304. In order to make the bike move a force F1, 318 is applied on the pedal 316 that decomposes into a perpendicular force 319 acting on the crank's arm 314 having a length L1 and producing the torque 315.

This torque is further applied to the chain-wheel 311 having a radius L2 312, that produces the force or tension in the chain F2, which is equal with the force F2, 307 that is applied on the wheel's chain 305 at a wheel radius L3, 306, that generates the torque in the wheel 310. this torque applied on the wheel's 304 radius L4. 308. This generates the active force in the tire 304-ground interface F4, 309 that moves the bike. It is good to know that the force in the tire-ground interface 309 is smaller than the weight of the bike and rider applied on the wheel 304 multiplied by the adhesion coefficient. Any time this force is greater the wheel is skidding and is losing the lateral stability. This happens mainly during the breaking phase because the rider generated traction force is in most of the cases much smaller. This force is compensating for the rolling drag force and the forces to climb a ramp and what is left is finally equal with mass times the acceleration of the bike, which is responsible for bike's speed variation.

FIG. 3B shows a detail on the pedal-crank with respect to forces application.

In the figure the leg 321 has the shin's axis 322 that has an angle given by the crank 330, relative position, or crank angle. The foot axis 325 makes the angle 324 with the leg axis 322, and this angle is varying up and under the right angle. The shoe's sole 326 is applying on the pedal a tangential force Fx, 333, and a perpendicular force Fy, 332, no matter the relative angle to the crank 330. There is a gap between the sole and pedal axis 331. Ignoring that gap, a new force 334 was constructed that is decomposing in a force 335 perpendicular on the crank arm, that creates the torque in the crank axis 329 and a force along the crank arm 336 that applies stress in the bearings and bike's frame, with no major follow-up, but some friction drag force and increased wear. The torque 329 created by the perpendicular force 335 varies with the crank's arm angle, and created a new traction force 328 in the chain wheel 327 that is further applied to the chain.

This is a simple, robust and cheap mechanism hard to be replaced by something similar and improve the performances per cost ratio. This is one of the reasons this system has been used for so long.

FIG. 3C shows the relative position of the feet as a function of crank angle.

It is seen that the leg 345 is accommodating its angle on the pedal in order to maximize the torque in the chain-wheel 342, by modifying the angle of the feet 341 is acting on the pedal 344 in various position of the crank 342. In the first quadrant 343 is acting with the pedal horizontal, while in the low quadrant 346 is tilting forward to make some push for the crank and extend the active domain. In the last quadrant 344 and 341 the feet is pushed up by the pedal and is optimized the angle to make that operation smooth and prepare for the active phase 343 in the first quadrant.

FIG. 3D shows the magnitude of the force perpendicular on the crank arm for every 30 degreed.

It is seen that during a rotation 353, at any crank angle 350 the force has a positive component 355 that pushes the crank in forward direction 351, while for about one third of the rotation 352 the force is negative, 356 slowing down the crank, because the crank is pushing the leg up using a part of the active force of the other leg acting on the other pedal, with a phase shift of 180 degrees. This is one big advantage of this system because the legs are synergistically help each other and optimize the force application and muscle usage regime.

FIG. 3E shows the leg muscles timing diagram as function of crank angle.

On the left side is presented one crank arm 360 full rotation, 361, and on it with curved arrows it is showed the domain of action of each leg 362 muscles. The Figure is a courtesy to those skilled in the art, and is meant to help them better understand the advantages and disadvantages of pedaling vs. stepping. On the right side is schematically figured the leg muscles and its geometry on the bike. The rider's body axis 362 forms the hip's joint 363, angle 364, with the thigh's axis 365. The thigh 366 and the shin 369 form the knee angle 367 that varies during pedaling. Shin's axis 368 and feet axis 370 forms the ankle angle 371, and this is generally the geometry of the leg.

On the crank arm disk it is seen that the muscle rectus fumoris 373 is acting when the pedal is in the upper side, initiating its pushing downwards where the vastii muscles 374 and gluteus maximus 376 act. At the pedal's mid range the movement is continued by hamstrings 375 and soleus 372 muscles while gastrocnemious 377 is acting also on the return path. It is seen that in the sectors 6 and 7 of the disk 360 the action is carried on by the opposite leg muscles active in their sectors 2 and 3, and transmitting the force through the crank.

FIG. 4A is an illustration in perspective view of a bicycle 400 that uses one embodiment of the propulsion mechanism. A bicycle frame 401 is shown, which attaches the propulsion mechanism at the lowermost portion of the seat stays 402 of the bicycle frame 401. The frame stems 403 serves to mount the major components of the propulsion mechanism and the rear wheel hub 404 and rear wheel 405.

The major components of the propulsion mechanism include the crank levers 406, which mount the pedals 407, the guide levers 408, the drive arms 409, and the drive wheels 410. The pedals 407 are configured to be located at approximately the location of the bottom bracket on conventional bicycles. On application of force to the pedals 407 by the rider, the crank levers 406 are depressed and transmit a force to the drive arms 409, which in turn, rotate the drive wheels 410. When the crank levers 406 approach their lowermost or highest position in the cycle, the guide levers 408 serve to change the direction of the crank levers. In this manner, the crank levers 406 are kept in constant motion. The motion of the pedals 407 is approximately rectilinear, as the length of the crank levers 406 is high relative to the distance, which they displace vertically. This length allows the rider a great deal of leverage in applying force to the pedals 407. As the drive wheel 410 is rotated, it drives a gear mechanism, which, in turn, drives the rear wheel 405. The frame stems 411 can be used to mount accessories, such as a cable holder 411 for the gearing cables 412.

FIG. 4B shows the device used in the actual stepper bikes to provide the reciprocating movement correlation, being a gear similar to those used in automotive differentials, and that is what makes these bikes so expensive. The pedals' crank arms are connected to the planetary gears shafts 420 and 427, in contact via tooth 425, with the satellite gear 422 and 423 which are connected together through the shaft 426. A ratchet like mechanism 424 applied on both gear-wheels makes the shaft 426 rotate in a single direction, forward and transmits the movement to the wheels.

FIG. 5 A shows a schematic diagram of an exercise recumbent bike equipped with data acquisition devices, being our experiment, made in order to better understand the differences between the stepping and pedaling.

Not having accessible for the initial moment portable electronics, we used a recumbent exercise bike, 503 that allowed us to focus mainly on the legs and body action, and to measure that as function of time storing the values on a data acquisition system 515. The rider 501 is sitting on the recumbent seat 502 having installed force sensors 504 for the backseat and main seat 505, for the sit connected to the data acquisition system 515. The rider may use the hands 506 as well to make hand propulsion. Electro-Myo-Graphic (EMG) sensor to capture the electrical signal that emanates from contracting muscles in areas 1, 2 and 3, 507 has been also used, and transmitted by wires 514 to the DAQ board 515.

The exercise bike had pedals 509 pushed by legs 508 acting on an inertial spinning disk 510 equipped with a ribbon brake, adjusted by a knob on the front panel. We have designed and built a pedal's crank-arm adaptor 511 that allowed us transform the pedals into a stepper with no changes in geometry and adjustments, by simply dismantling the pedals 509 and mount them on the stepper arm mounted on the crank-arm 511, that makes the brake inertial disk 510 spin from reciprocating movement. The pedal force and position were measured 512 and together with inertial disk RPM and brake position 513 also measured electronically were transmitted to the data acquisition board made using a micro-controller board 515.

The measurement have been done using the pedaling and stepping modes for regimes that delivers about the same RPM and using the same brake force, in order to help us understand and elaborate the SWAT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and threats) analysis in order to understand why the steppers are not so attractive to the market in spite their aggressive advertisement.

FIG. 5B shows the results obtained in the comparative measurement on the recumbent exercise bike for stepping versus pedaling propulsion modes.

The EMG data turned to be very complicated to interpret, depending on many other parameters, and we simply ignored for this process. The chart 521 presents on abscises 522 the time in seconds for a reduced number of turns, (about 2) of the pedals crank arm 511, and on the left ordinate 523, the measurement values for the analogical signals as provided by the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) and on the right ordinate 524 the values provided by the digital input (DI) used to detect when the crank passes through the initial position where a magnet was placed and a hall effect switch is closing the circuit in the magnet's direct proximity. This signal, 526, was used to synchronize the charts.

We recorded the inertial disk revolution speed, and converted to crank arm RPM (revolutions per Minute) and we have represented it for pedaling 527 (RPM_P) and for stepping propulsion mode 528 (RPM_S), and we looked to be as much as possible about the same. Their value fluctuation was around 350 ADC units on the left ordinate 523.

We have measured the force in the pedals, using the same pedals with the same calibration for stepping and pedaling, and the force variation in time is represented on the chart for the left and right leg. For the pedaling we recorded the curves Left_P, 535 for the left leg force on pedal, and Right_P, 536. and we see a little difference in profile, that makes us observe that the dominant leg is the right leg. For stepping propulsion mode we recorded the curves Left_S, 529 for the left leg and Right_S, 530, for the right leg. Still the right leg is dominant but the differences in action are reduced. For stepping we have adjusted an action domain 361, of 90 degrees (a quarter) starting from the half of the 1^(st) sector 360, and ending at a half of the 3^(rd) sector in FIG. 3E, where the majority of muscles are in action. After a complete revolution of 360 degrees, the DI from the Hall effect switch gives another pulse 537, and we may calculate the revolution period of about 1.6 seconds, corresponding to a 40 RPM. We have observed that the force in the pedal is about a half when stepping than when pedaling, but the stepping cadence is twice as high than the pedaling for a quarter action range. When the action range is reduced to 60 degrees the cadence becomes by 3 times higher.

From these data we have calculated the mechanical work made for pedaling W_P, 534, and for stepping W_S, 533, for the both legs and we observed that this is about the same. This experimental measurement and prototyping together with the prior art study made us understand what is missing and helped us elaborate this invention meant to improve the riding experience.

FIG. 6A shows in an exploded view the crank-pedal adaptor accessory device an embodiment of the present invention.

The accessory device is installing directly over the pedal's cranks and makes possible that a set of arms with a ratchet hub to spin freely in one direction, and train the crank-arm when pushed in the opposite direction spinning the chain-wheel. The pedals dismantled from the bikes original crank-arms are now mounted on these ratcheted arms. To be pushed down have to be set in the position where both pedals are in front of the crank axis or back. To obtain the pedaling function, one has to block together the actual ratcheted arm with the crank-arm. In this way the stepping and pedaling functions are obtained on the same bike. A range limiting mechanism acting as reciprocating motion aid have to be used to correlate the legs movement in anti-phase, else any pedal returning mechanism may work, obtaining non-correlated leg pushing.

The bicycle's usual pedal assembly 600, contains a crank pin, 601 that rigidly connect the crank arms 606 and 607, using a screw 609, 610 spacer tubes 604, 605 and washers 602, 603.

At “ready to go bikes”, the pedals are screwed in the crank arms threads 606 and 607. The accessory device, foresees minimum modifications to the bike, so it requires that only pedals to be unscrewed and removed. Over the crank arm a profiled tube 611, 612 is fit over and stabilized at the pedal end with appropriate screws 613, 614 screwed in the pedal threats, until the tube is perfectly aligned and stabilized at the other end with appropriate knobs 615, 616, that seizes it in the right position. It is known that the pedals uses left handed and right handed threads, therefore the screws 613, are not interchangeable with 614. Being paired with the knob 615, respectively 616 and crank arm, 607 respectively 606.

On the profiled tube adaptor a hexagonal structure 617, 618 is welded perfectly aligned with the rotation axis. On the hexagon support via ratchet mechanism 623, 622, ratcheted arms 625, 626 are mounted tight, and at the end have threaded halls that match the pedals 629, 630 threads. On the ratcheted arms 625, 626, extender connectors 631, 640 are mounted and on them interchangeable spacer rods 632, 639 are mounted. The rods role is to connect the two ratcheted-arms into a reciprocating mode using the first-degree lever 635 installed on a hinge connected to the bike's frame through the adaptor 636.

The connection holes 633 and 634, respectively 637 and 638 are set together using appropriate bolts. In this moment the pedals may perform in anti-phases, a correlated reciprocating movement, with a range given by the length of the adaptor rods 632, 639. Additional stoppers may be mounted on the lever 635. In order to allow a sliding inside the reciprocating movement the rods may be replaced with elastic elements connected to the bike's frame 636.

With a single sense ratchet the pedals may be functional in a single position in front or after the spindle or the crank axis. In order to change this position it is necessary to change the adaptors—the left one to be mounted on the other side on the right and reciprocal with the right one.

In order to switch from stepping to pedaling there is necessary to diskonnect the rods 633 and 639 and rigidly connect the ratcheted arm to the crank arm using the screws 621 and fittings 620, and similar ones on the other side, together with the metal ribbon 619.

FIG. 6B shows a new type of improved ratchet mechanism meant to enhance the ratchets 622 and 623 from FIG. 6A, in order to allow easier change of stepping quadrant and switching back to pedaling by the turn of a knob.

The figure is a zoom in the ratchet head of the ratcheted arm. The arm 646 is seen just in part connecting the ratchet mechanism housing 655, which can be either 622 or 623 in the previous figure. The gear wheel with symmetrical, triangular or trapezoidal tooth 657 is stabilized in the lateral sides of the case 656. The gear contains a hexagonal hole 658 to fit over the hexagonal profiles 617, 618 in the previous figure. The improvement consists in the application of independent blades 660 and 659, each design to block the rotation of the gear wheel in one direction when applied. When both are applied simultaneously the gear seizes in that position, and when both are released the wheel spins freely. The ratchet has now 4 regimes:

Spin freely when the two pads 660, 659 are up

Seize or locked when both pads 660, 659 are down on the gear

Spin one sense when one pad 660 is down and the other one 659 is up

Spin in the opposite direction when one pad 660 is up and the other one 659 is down

The pad actuation is done by the cables 642 and 643 acting against the elastic springs 644 respectively 645. The hinge 641 has to be rigid enough to withstand the huge forces inside, given by torques that may be as high as 300 lb ft, corresponding to a 300 lb rider positing all his weight on one leg acting on a 1 ft long ratcheted arm that holds the pedal.

With this adaptor the bike will allow both stepping and pedaling but will become slower, for the reasons highlighted in the experimental study we have performed.

This kind of accessory device will be good to transform an old bike into a more complex one with minimum investment, just adding the adaptor and moving the pedal from the bike's crank arm on the adaptor ratcheted arm, having the drawback a reduction by a factor of 2 or 3 in the maximum speed, but increased performances up hill. The main inconvenient is that one may not come pedaling to the hill and switch the knob and go stepping uphill. The rider has to stop, switch the knob for pedaling, and connect the movement reciprocating device to the ratcheted arms, eventually adjust the maximum range of the stepper.

FIG. 7A shows a schematic view of a pedal's crank adaptor device with the capability of fixed ratio multiplying the range of the action in a chain-wheel gear,

As we have previously shown the simply replacing the pedal with a stepper mechanism may affect the nominal bike's speed in stepper mode—up to a factor of 2 or 3 depending on the stepper angular range set at 90 deg. or 60 deg. respectively.

This device requires the complete removal of the pedal's crank and its central rod from the spindle 701, that is in the lower part of the bike's frame 702.

In order to have available two stepping positions, in front, towards the front wheel or in the rear, towards the rear wheel, a special double pedal is set in place 703, 704. These pedals have a front pedal 705, 706 and a rear pedal 707, 708 rigidly connected to the ratchet mechanism 709, 710, which has the cables 711, 712 that are connected to the position changer knob. The ratchets are coupled to the central rod 713, installed on the previous crank ball bearings 714.

The pedals reciprocating mechanism has the arm adapter 715, 716 the range adapter arms 717, 718, and the lever 719 bolted on a support 724 tight on the bike's frame.

The bike's chain wheel ratio changer set 721 is maintained and it may be directly connected to the central rod as in the previous version or to a stepper range multiplier using the clutch 722 that in one side connects the central rod and in the other direction connects the chain wheel 723.

There are various versions to make the clutch, a simple one presented above which simply connects the ratio changer to the action rod or to last stage in the stepper range multiplier. A more complex switch may disconnect all the range multiplier while using direct connection but that requires one more clutch that increases the cost but saves some biker's energy.

The range extender is basically a gearbox made with chain-wheels, chains, ball-bearings and clutches.

The stepper range multiplier support 724 sits on a ball-bearing 725 outer ring. The first chain-wheel is connected directly or via a clutch to the driving rod 726. When range multiplier is used the chain-wheel is tight to the central rod being trained by the ratcheted stepper arms.

The chain wheel is connected via a transmission chain 727 to the upper chain wheel 728, mounted on an axial rod 729 that sits on the upper ball-bearing 730. To prevent the device spin a bracket 731 is fixing it tight to the bike frame 720, and the reciprocating movement transmission lever 719.

On the other site of the central rod 729 another chain-wheel 732 is connected via a transmission chain 723 to the final training chain-wheel 733 that via a clutch selector transmits the movement to chain wheel assembly 721, and from there it goes to the rear wheel through the transmission chain 734, no matter which of the chain-wheels are selected.

The range amplification factor is given by the product of the transmission ratios of the chain-wheels used in the chain-wheel gear assembly 724, and may be as high as 10 times, but usually a 3-6 times multiplication factor is expected.

FIG. 7B—shows another embodiment of the present invention, in a schematic diagram a chain multiplication device with multiple ratios, like 1:1=first gear; 2:1=2^(nd) gear; 4:1=3^(rd) gear and 8:1=4^(th) gear.

A simple gear like system using chain-wheels, chains and clutches is presented, having the advantage of simplicity and low cost.

The spindle cylinder 741, that was previously housing the crank mechanism is replaced and inside is introduced the ratcheted arms rod 743, and over it on needle bearings a tube 742 holding rigidly connected three chain-wheels 751, 762, 765, with various number of tooth.

The spindle cylinder 741 is connected to the bike's frame and holds a support 749, which holds another tube 748 with ball-bearings.

The movement imposed by the pedals 746, 747 is transmitted to the ratcheted arms 744, 745 and via the ratchets to the central rod 743. On the central rod 743 is a double action clutch 750 that in one position connects directly the central rod to the chain-wheel 760 that transmits the movement to the rear wheel chain-wheels assembly. When switched in the second position it connects the outer cylinder 742 to the chain-wheel 760 transmitting a movement given by one of the three chain wheels 751, 762, 765 rigidly connected on the cylinder 742.

With the clutch 750 in the second position the movement imposed by the ratchets in the central rod 743 is transmitted to the chained wheel 752 rigidly connected and via the transmission chain 753 to the upper chain-wheel 754 rigidly connected to the axis 755.

The clutch 766 connects the chain-wheel 756 that transmits the movement via the transmission chain 767 to the wheel 751 being magnified as corresponding with the second gear position, with a final ratio equal with the products of the ratios of the chain-wheels used, The wheel 751 transmits the movement to the wheel 760 when the clutch 750 is in the second position, and from there to the rear wheel. Another option is that the clutch 766 to be off and the clutch 757 to be on, transmitting the rod's 755 movement to the chain-wheel 758, and via the chain 761 to the chain-wheel 762 and to the tube 742.

The last option is that only the clutch 759 to be on, and the first two clutches 757, 766 to be off.

In this case the rod's 755 movement is transmitted to the chain-wheel 763, and via the transmission chain 764 to the chain-wheel 765 and to the transmission tube 742. The buttons commanding these three clutches 766, 757, 759 act as “radio buttons” where only one is on and the others are off, while the first clutch may select independently any position desirable.

FIG. 7C is showing a version of the pedal-crank adaptor using a continuous variable ratio stepper range amplifier.

The device is similar to the previous one, but replaces the 3 discrete gears stages with a continuous variable ration. The spindle cylinder 741, that was previously housing the crank mechanism is replaced and inside is introduced the ratcheted arms rod 743, and over it on needle bearings a tube 742 holding rigidly connected the variable ratio movement converter and the chain-wheel 760, which transmits the movement to the wheel. The spindle cylinder 741 is connected to the bike's frame and holds a support 749, which holds another tube 748 with ball-bearings.

The movement imposed by the pedals 746, 747 is transmitted to the ratcheted arms 744, 745 and via the ratchets to the central rod 743. On the central rod 743 is a double action clutch 750 that in one position connects directly the central rod to the chain-wheel 760 that transmits the movement to the rear wheel chain-wheels assembly. When switched in the second position it disconnects the outer cylinder 742 from the central rod 743 and the chain-wheel 760 is transmitting a movement given by the additional chain-wheels and trapezoidal gear system 770-775 connected on the cylinder 742. The central rod 743 is now connected by the clutch 751 to the chain-wheel 752. With the clutch 750 in the second position the movement imposed by the ratchets in the central rod 743 is transmitted to the chained wheel 752 rigidly connected and via the transmission chain 753 to the upper chain-wheel 754 rigidly connected to the axis 755.

The rod 755 is transmitting the movement on the interlaced conic wheels, 770, 772, whose interpenetration height is given by the position of the lever 771, moved in position by a cable actuator. The two interpenetrated conical wheels 770 and 772 at the cones intersection form the diameter for the beaded transmission cord 773, that further transmits the movement to the second pair of inter-penetrated conical wheels 774, 775 whose intersection forms the other wheel, and the ratio between those diameter is the transmission multiplication factor. The height of the wheels is varying, under the control of the actuation lever 771, and a cable system to make the wheels remain symmetrical.

In this system the commands are for the clutch—on in direct contact between the ratchet to the bike's wheel, and off—through the continuous variable ratio transmission, whose adjustment is done by a knob, continuously.

One of the issues we have with these devices is that the rider cannot switch the pedaling mode directly while riding in the stepping mode and reverse. The present device comes to solve this problem. In fact that was a gradual introduction made to keep the drawings as simple as possible and introduce gradually all the embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7D—Represents a schematic diagram of the pedaling-stepping switch assembly.

The figure presents a section at the bike crank's spindle 741, level, showing the main modules, and only the important part for the explanation. The purpose of this mechanism is to switch from pedaling to stepping in the desired position and back with bike running, without being necessary to stop and make hand adjustments.

The pedals, 746, 747 are connected t the ratcheted arms 744, 745 that are connected to the main rod 743 using the ratchets with double actuation 776, 778. The ratcheted arm reciprocating movement arm 715, 716 in FIG. 7A have been replaced with two disks mounted tight on the ratcheted arm 777, 779. The disks contains holes 786, 783 that are used to connect two amovible adjustment rods 787, 784 that have a short bolt to hook into the disks in the holes 783, 786, when pushed by the actuators 785, 788. When the actuators push the rods in the opposite direction, in the drawing towards the bike's frame 749, the bolts get lose and diskonnect from the disk, and this position is desired during pedaling or adjusting the pedals position prior to stepping.

The rods 784, 787 are hinged in a lever 790 hinged in the bike's frame 749 that assures the correlated reciprocating movement during stepping.

This accessory, meant to improve the riding experience by adding the possibility of stepping, in a skew random fashion or reciprocating movement, has been translated in having a relatively large number of actuators and operating options.

The following actuators are now to be controlled:

Bike's driving wheel speed changer 794;

Bike's pedal chain-wheel changer 793;

Ratchet arms double actuators 776, 778;

Stepping gear 780, 781 actuators 789, 791, 792

In total 7 actuators with all having more than 2 operating positions that may be controlled by the rider, or by an electronic system. To these seldom use controls, steering, brakes, motion, lights and signaling are added as controls the rider has to master in order to perform safe and have a pleasant riding experience.

FIG. 8A—Shows another solution to the ratcheted arm, in cross section using clutches.

The problem was to improve the bike's comfort, eliminate the ratchet noise and lagging and simplify the mechanism, in order to make it cheaper and with better performances.

FIG. 8A shows a lateral view of an alternative propulsion mode, based on friction, aiming to eliminate the ratchet and reduce friction and noise in the mechanism.

The pedal arm 801 is supported on the central rod 802 using a bearing or a ball-bearing 803. The pedals reciprocating mechanism has the arm adapter 804 connected via the hinge 805, the range adapter arms 806, and the lever 807 bolted on a support tight on the bike's frame. This structure limits the pedal's movements and correlates with the movement of the other pedal.

The pedal arm incorporates an eccentric role 810 that has a bump 809 that is in slight friction with a disk 808. Anytime when the arm is moving downward relative to the disk 808, the role 810 turns and the eccentrically bump 809 seizes the disk, making a grasp on it and turning it.

When the arm moves in the opposite direction the role 810 rotates and pushes the bump 809 outside releasing the grasp from the disk. This mechanism replaces the ratchet, being quieter in operation. The arm 801 holds a pedal elastic support 811, with an elastic spring 813 underneath, and the pedal itself 812 where the leg pushing force is applied.

FIG. 8B shows a schematic view in section along the rotation axis, of an alternative propulsion mode, presented in FIG. 7A based on friction, aiming to eliminate the ratchet and reduce friction and noise in the mechanism.

The pedal arm is supported on the central rod 802 using a bearing or a ball-bearing 803, or just a simple bearing. The pedals reciprocating mechanism has the arm adapter 804 connected via the hinge 805, the range adapter arms 806, and the lever 807 bolted on a support, tight, on the bike's frame. This structure limits the pedal's movements and correlates with the movement of the other pedal. The pedal arm incorporates an eccentric role that has a bump 809, that is in slight friction with a disk 808. Anytime when the arm is moving downward relative to the disk 808, the role turns and the eccentrically bump 809 grips the disk, turning it.

The disk 808 is fixed rigid on the central rod 802, and using a double action clutch 816 it may transmit the movement directly to a training tube 817 that holds the pedal's chain-wheels 818, and via the transmission chain 819 the movement is transmitted to the driving wheel.

When the clutch 816 is in the other position, the central axis movement is applied on another chain-wheel 815 that transmits it in a stepper range adaptor device and from there it is transmitted back to the training tube 817 and to the pedal's chain-wheels 818.

FIG. 8C shows a lateral view of a double pedal used for stepper bike, in a pantograph setup.

The mechanics remains the same as presented before, and on the central axis is installed a ball-bearing, or ratchet 832, carrying the pedals' arm 833. The arm supports two pedals, one in front 835, and one in the rear 836. The pedals are mounted on a vertical tube 837, respectively 838 that is connected with the bolts 839, 840. The pedals are connected to the reciprocating mechanism, and through the tube 841 that allows the bolt 842 slide inside longitudinally to an attitude adjustment 843, that sets the direction of the stepping. The disk 831 is grabbing the pedal movement and further transmits it in the system. The metal sheet 834 serves as a protection and pantograph device maintaining the pedal's axis aligned to the initial direction Using these adaptors the rider may improve his riding experience indoors and outdoors, but that is not enough in order to be able to monitor, evaluate and share it.

FIG. 9A shows a schematic view of the electronic modules that have to be added on a bike or exercise bike to monitor, record and share the rider's experiences.

Riding is a nice private experience, and now with new capabilities installed on the bike it becomes even more exciting, but in order to monitor it, evaluate, improve and share electronic systems are needed in order to measure, record and transmit all the details, and be able to reproduce them on remotely located similar devices.

On a bike or exercise bike 900 one needs to add an electronics box to control the steering 902, that have to be tight to the bike's frame 901, mainly in the cases when actuating is desired too.

A complex data acquisition and processing device 903 is added on the chassis that may have capabilities of local wifi and radio data communication 904. Another electronic system needs to measure the wheel 905 speed and breaking parameters 909. The propulsion force is measured on the chain, delivering the transmission stage at the pedal's chain-wheel 910 in a dedicated electronics box 906 and the stage at the driving chain wheel set 908 in a dedicated electronics box 907.

The boxes may measure and indicate the transmission stage but in some cases may change it/actuate following the general electronics box 903 commands.

Very important for riding experience is to measure the force 915 in pedal 914, and the angle the force is applied using the setup 913. The parameters in the pedal disk or its homologues 910, the crank angle 912 and status of the accessory device 911 are very important too both for monitoring and active control. These are the main parameters, but to these some other parameters are very important to record in order to share a valuable riding experience, like GPS coordinates, bike's position by accelerometers and gyroscope device, the movie of the path in stereoscopic recording with sound surround system, weather data, and more by rider's choice.

FIG. 9B shows details in the pedal sensor in a schematic diagram.

The central rod axis 920 has a bearing equipped with an angular position measurement device. The pedal arm, 921, holds the pedal bolt 922 that has another angle measurement device 923. The pedal support 925 holds the axis 927 that transmits the force to a second degree double lever, looking like a door hinge 926, that splits the force in a desired ratio, in order to make possible the use of cheap, customized force sensors 928, with an electronics adaptor box 929.

The pedal 924 is mounted above, on a narrow connection. And due to its hinged configuration is measuring the total force that pushes the pedal. Using the instantaneous angles the electronics board may easily calculate all the dependent parameters ending with torque and forces. These adaptors may transmit the data via wifi or using wires connected to the bike.

Up to this moment we have acquired the data from the bike and pedals, but in order to have a complete image the rider's data is also important, inside the privacy limits.

FIG. 9C shows the block diagram of the body parameter recording synchronous with the bike's parameters.

The rider 932 uses a bike 931 equipped with electronic data measurement and control with a central electronic system 933 equipped with wifi and radio communication. The bike on the steering device has 2 cameras 934 that record synchronously a stereoscopic movie, with sound surround line.

Rider's parameters are important for exercise monitoring, for rider's health check and for exploratory research of rider's body performances, as well for recuperatory medicine and physical therapy.

The main parameters to be checked and acquired are the vials 935, as pulse rate, oxygen level, breath rate, Oxygen consumption, body temperatures, blood pressure, etc. Other parameters may involve the muscles study, using EMG (Electro-Myo-Graphy) techniques 939, body angles measurements as hip 938, knee and leg 940 angles, pedal angle, position and force 941. All these data may be acquired in a local electronics box 936, or transmitted via wifi to cell phone 937, and from there as data in the network. This data has a level of privacy and care have to be taken at its processing, transmission and sharing.

FIG. 9D renders a schematic diagram of the electronic data acquisition system diagram used in the process, showing the most important signals.

There are several electronics modules working independently, in parallel but accumulating data in a common area, and using as needed. The bike pedal data acquisition module 950 and 951 are contained as independent devices with their own rechargeable batteries 947, under the pedal no matter if it is used for stepping or for pedaling. This module has a micro-controller unit 948 that has a local timer, synchronized to a master system via a wireless communication 949, and records the force 946 from a force sensor and position of the pedal 945 and pedal's arm position relative to the riding device 944 as function of time. The micro-controller electronic assembly may record some other information 943 in the data acquisition system as pedal's temperature, proximity to ground or other objects, sound, vibration, that may be used in more elaborated applications.

Using the communication interface 949 it may transmit data using an IR (infra-red, i.e. 905 nm) communication to the bike system or by using a wifi (“blue-tooth”, or other communication protocol i.e. “zigbee”) may communicate to a smart phone or tablet. On the tablet, based on a code (app) the rider's effort may be presented for each leg, with some estimation for muscle group activity. This app, correlated to another app giving smart phone position and environment data may be the simplest recording of a riding experience.

Another electronic module 952 acquires data and controls the riding device using specialized actuators, and transmits its data to a more complex system 955 located on the device with various connection capabilities to a remote processing unit 956. To this system the data from another system installed on rider 953 that brings more personal information. The system is optional, and its use brings information with a value for medicine and science, or personal health care.

For indoor applications a system that is coordinated by a module 954 that has the ability to customize the riding outdoors experience to an indoor rider is used.

This module contains a stereoscopic display 960 able to render outdoors stereoscopic recordings in agreement with the indoor rider's performances and progress on track. The rider may also use stereoscopic TV goggles 961 for a more immerseive approach, in order to render as accurately as possible the outdoors experience. The sound 962 may vary from a mono to sound-surround with up to 6 tracks and Ultra-Sound US down conversion to audio band.

The unit relies on micro-controllers and output ports to connect to the actuators and reproduce the various situations encountered on the path. A pair of actuators 963 gives the riding device indoors the same tilt angles the device outdoors experienced. A heating device 964 simulates the radiation from the ground. A light device 965 is making the ambient radiation. Over the head a fan with humidifier and smell actuator 966 is delivering a scent reproducing the outdoor experience, while a pulsed shower is simulating the rain. Most of these are simply optional add-ons. All the accessory devices used outdoors are used indoors too.

The electronic equipment is made off a set of cameras 970, and microphones 971 that can be placed in various positions and have larger than acoustic bands. The data stream from these sensors is pretty big, and will require dedicated high speed transfer ports or local recording in a buffer and download at a later time.

A specialized module 972 controls the riding device steering and breaks together with actuators. There are two versions of this module, one for monitoring purposes only, that do not contain actuators and one complex that uses actuators to control the trajectory remotely, or automatically assist the trajectory, when remotely assisted by an indoor operator.

The riding device propulsion parameters as the pedaling/stepping accessory device regimes gears shifter positions, transmitted force, speed and positions of the wheels together with Earth locator GPS coordinates, accelerations on the device, and some other technologic data are managed in a device 973 that also mat control these parameters via actuators having an electric motor to augment the propulsion. Another module 974, controls other environment parameters as weather, humidity, wind, temperature, irradiance, air quality and scents or specific gases in the air, magnetic, electric and radiation fields.

A specialized module 975, controls utility power on the vehicles that assures independent power for various applications, and redundant power feeding circuits.

All the data acquired in this module is finally transferred into the processing system 955 that is also controls the different functions, when existent based on commands from a remote system. This system contains a multi-processor array, working in parallel 977, preprocessing and formatting the transferred data and stored in a memory 978. The processing system has various communication capabilities in communication sub-module 979. The real-time Radio communication is used for remote control of the riding device outdoors using an indoors command system. Other communication modes as cell-phone data transfer modules or satellite are possible options.

The module 953 is a personalized body control for health and exercise, monitoring rider's parameters. A sub-module 980 monitors the pulse rate and oxygen level in blood, a supplementary one 981, measures the chest functions as EKG and respiratory functions during the effort. A module 982 connected to the facial mask is measuring the air intake flow and the exhaust residual oxygen and carbon dioxide, to measure the lung's efficiency.

A specialized sensor array 983 measures the kinematics of movement, monitoring the body's parts angles, electro-myo-graphic (EMG) functions, noise in joints, and muscles, temperatures, etc. Other functions 984 may be added, to measure various other parameters as muscle expansion, nervous system electric activity, sweat and its ph temperature distribution on the body.

The system is modular, each module communicating wireless or by cable to a specialized sub-module 985, that may store this data locally or transmit to an app on a smart phone, or tablet.

Due to privacy reasons, the communication sub-module 985 might not use the transmission line 986, towards the multiprocessing system 955. The data that is allowed, as being free of privacy issues, may be further transmitted via Internet to a remote computing system 956 where the data is processed changing the movie timeline into a universal definition path line 990. After specialized processing, the digital riding experience is stored in a specialized server 991 ready for being distributed into the Internet. By this set of electronics the riding experience improved by adding the stepping or reciprocating movement system is recorded, edited and shared among the riders.

FIG. 10 shows a complete use of the system in a schematic diagram.

Somewhere on the planet Earth 1001, seen in an Internet map locator, a rider 1002, equipped with the mechanical and electronic accessories developed according to the present invention has a complex riding experience. The rider 1002, is using a stereoscopic camera 1006 to make the movie of the path, he uses. He has installed the complex pedaling/stepper adaptor 1003 with data acquisition capabilities, collecting the data in the central electronics 1004, from the bike's system and from the rider's system 1005 that records the rider selected parameters. From all the data available via internet it transfers data to cloud 1007, located in a remote location 1008.

In this location a dedicated computer system 1009 is editing and enhancing the movie and the associated parameters and transforms it in an application able to run on various devices.

The application is transferred in an “Experience Interchange” library 1010 and made available to other users similar to a movie or book located in another computer system 1011 and appearing for users as a cloud 1012.

In another location on the planet, another rider 1014 is searching the web through his computer 1013 finds the riding experience posted by our initial rider 1002. He downloads it and runs it on his exercise bike 1015 equipped with virtual reality simulation capability.

The bike has a stereoscopic display 1017 or goggles stereo TV 1018 with sound surround capabilities that may run the recorded path as a function of the local effort. The exercise bike actuators 1016 simulate the slope and turns, while the bike's measurement system records the effort and the progress on the path. Supplementary it shows reports of the rider's 1014 personal data with respect to his fitness and health.

The data has to be translated in a specific format, that to be compatible with all systems around the world. The timeline of the initial movie is changed into a path progress, so as the images will run correlated with the local rider's effort and progress on the path.

The server may organize real time or correlated contests simulating a competition among the gym room users. Say a virtual “tour de France” the servers keeping each updated with his regime of effort and progress in the contest.

Another electronic module may make possible real-time broadband communication 1021 between an exercise bike 1015 located somewhere indoors and a robotic bike 1020 located on a path with a novice rider or a recuperation therapy patient, via a local RF communication 1019. The remote bike rider 1014 assumes the leading role, complementing the effort made by the rider 1020 such as to keep him safe and train his muscles for the medical or training purposes. This device may be as well be used for research and risk free training purposes as new path exploration. Many other riding devices may be equipped with the accessory modules described above in order to create shareable riding experiences.

The accessory modules are enhancing the riding experience on devices using human's muscle propulsion, allowing a large palette of movements to be used for propulsion for leisure or fitness purposes. The data acquisition systems and the sharing systems allow the experience to be completely shared among the users, being complex training equipment.

Specific data acquisition and transmission formats will be developed in order to assure the compatibility among the users of the applications:

The movie format that might be a MPEG, AVI, MOV etc. will have calculated the coordinates as function of the timeline, compressed for transmission than deconvoluted in a compressed form for transmission, but reformatted as pictures with path coordinates assigned. The new movement will calculate the new coordinates and project the right image on screen.

The procedure implies that the primary recording to be time dependent, recording local time and GPS coordinates.

The processed application will transform the prime dependence of time, in dependence on path and calculate the external effort generators—and adapt to universal device that will be transmitted to users. The users will introduce their riding device data, and the application will customize the effort and environment data for their specific device—for example one records “Tour de France” on a racing bike, and the user is using an wheelchair to make that path, or a recumbent bike. The effort they have to make have to be recalculated to correspond to riding their device on that specific path, and that is an embodiment of the present invention. The slope, wing, weather conditions will be transmitted as they are and if possible or reasonable simulated in the rider indoors environment.

With specific personal gear, the experience may be transferred to other individual sports and competitions such as triathlon or any other multiple-stage competition involving the completion of three or more continuous and sequential endurance diskiplines, for which compatible equipment may be developed, and reproduced indoors too.

The business model as part of the present invention refers to developing mechanical and electrical accessory device that work together to record a “riding experience”, a computer application that converts the initial data into a universally shareable information, and makes it available on a web site similar to a book or a movie, where the authors are paid back for their effort by the users. It also develops accessory equipment to update the actual indoor devices to make them compatible with the simulation requirements.

More advanced accessories will develop robotic devices to be used for research and therapy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF INVENTION

The present invention refers to a set of improvements to the actual technique and apparatus of pedaling, introducing a variety of reciprocating motion known as stepping on the same device, and a number of electronic accessory modules, that helps record, and analyze a riding experience, and share it inside a community of users having compatible devices, applied to ant riding device propelled with human power repetitive motion, having several stages of application that are not mutually exclusive.

The main embodiment of the invention refers to the enhancement of the riding experience on pedaling based propulsion riding devices by adding several variants of stepping propulsion being the first stage of our invention. The enhancement of riding experience requires incremental enhancements of the riding device, and that starts with the pedal.

Our invention second stage refers to a pedal with data acquisition capability, which together with a wifi communication and a smart app., on a portable device, tablet or smart phone, may give enough information on rider's performance during a riding experience outdoor or indoors.

Using the actual advanced technologies, in an innovative manner, our invention gives the rider the possibility to accurately record his riding experience in its finest details, for his own analysis and usage or for sharing via Internet. When it comes to reuse a biking experience, issues related to the compatibility and equivalence of the riding devices occur, and another embodiment of our invention solves this problem, coming with a method to reprocess the initial riding experience and customize for any riding device and usage regime. At this stage we have solved the problem of compatibility of the riding experience outdoors with its reuse indoors.

Up to this stage we have used mainly passive devices, with the exception of some automation system applied to the riding devices outdoors and indoors, but in order to have a complete riding experience indoors, as near as reasonably possible to the outdoors experience a set of actuators and servo systems are needed in order to give the capability to the indoor device to simulate as accurately as reasonably possible the outdoor experience, and this is another embodiment of the present invention.

In this development stage it is possible to add one more layer of enhancement of the riding experience, making it available for special use, in medicine, physical therapy, crippled persons assisted leisure and research. Having the indoor riding device able to simulate almost anything from the outdoor experience in real time, we equip the outdoor device with remote controlled actuators and propulsion systems, that makes possible that the outdoor device to be controlled from the indoor device, by an experienced rider, no matter if a rider is or not riding the outdoor device, and this is another embodiment of the present invention.

The usage of Internet and the unification and customization software for the riding experiences, is possible to produce a non-locality of the riding experience and organize an entanglement among several users engaged in real time competitions using shared riding experiences previously recorded, and a diversity of riding devices, being yet another embodiment of the present invention.

How to Use the Invention

The invention application involves equipment manufacturing, software development and services, all covered by the method and the device, in order to assure a holistic approach of the improvement of the riding experience.

The process starts with the manufacturing of the pedal adaptor accessory device with force position recording capability, and sold to improve the present pedaling based riding devices, where the most numerous are the bicycles. This preserves the rider's initial investment and adds new functionalities, and the capability of a good recording.

Further, the present invention proposes the acquisition of more accessory devices adding more monitoring and recording capabilities, up to the level where the recorded riding experience is good enough to be shared via Internet. Our proprietary programs will allow the processing and end user customization of a riding experience, and contain all the information exchange, credits and rewards.

Using all the adaptors proposed and develop, one may obtain a set of correlated, synchronized riding devices that are producing results well above the basic purpose of entertainment and fitness. The results are now of a medical interest, detecting illnesses, nutrition effects on the rider's loco-motor system, recovery physical therapy and exploratory research pushing the user's level of knowledge and understanding.

EXAMPLES OF THE INVENTION

Thus it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not restricted to the particular preferred embodiments described with reference to the drawings, and that variations can be made therein without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims thereof. The present invention consists in the development of a set of accessory devices meant to improve the riding experience up to its reasonable limits that are customized on the rider's device, in several variants.

The application of these customized variants will extend the range of multiple usages minimizing the negative impact of the previous solutions, and is also reducing undesired collateral effects and medical complications. For example actually who has a steeper bike is just stepping, and who has a pedaling bike is just pedaling, while our invention transforms an existent bike in stepper-pedaling at request device, that can use at will the benefits of both propulsion modes.

The use of the embedded sensors will bring progress to the practice of exercising for fitness, physical therapy, medicine, and research allowing the rider handle all this information, interpret and use it towards welfare. The rider will come to know better the properties of his body, monitored continuously and used in diagnosis and equipment control. Some derivatives of this equipment might be used for advanced scientific measurement purposes only, while similar structures may be used for commercial purposes allowing individual riders to share for profit their riding experiences.

The application of the present invention will generate a step forward in the use of human propelled riding devices, by sharing the experiences among various types of riding devices, using the code's customization features, creating incentives for more people to exercise more often, and improving the fitness and well-being of the population.

The best application of the method to enhance the rider experience comprising the following steps:

the rider mounts on the riding device a version of the stepping/pedaling accessory device, that may come in several constructive versions,

the rider mounts on the riding device the electronics accessory devices that will allow tracing and recording a riding experience, and additional devices may bring supplementary information into the system, some shareable and some for his personal use, or a database use.

the rider records a riding experience and download into a specialized server, where it uses a specialized code to convert into a unitary application ready to be shared, and posts the application online for selling/distributing.

In order to be possible to share this information the indoor devices have to be compatible with the outdoor devices, therefore, another rider equips the indoor riding device with our stepping pedaling accessory device, and with all the sensors and actuators he considers necessary to monitor and reproduce a riding experience. Except for few functions performed by the pedals, no other function is critical for the application.

The indoor rider or end user downloads the application inside indoors riding device's computer, and runs it, sharing that riding experience.

If the user wants more capabilities the rider equips an outdoors riding device with remote controlled actuators for riding, and the indoor device with remote control system compatible with the outdoor device, downloads and run the application that allows him have an indoor controlled outdoors riding experience;

The indoor device may also be used to download a competition application and register to participate on real time or independently to one, or may organize outdoor competitions controlled from indoor riding devices. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to enhance the rider experience comprising the following steps: a)—mount on the riding device a version of the stepping/pedaling accessory device; b)—mount on the riding device the electronics accessory devices that will allow tracing and recording a riding experience; c)—record a riding experience and download into a specialized server; d)—use a specialized code to convert into a unitary application ready to be shared; e)—post the application online for selling/distributing; f)—equip the indoor riding device with our stepping pedaling accessory device; g)—equip the indoor device with the sensors and actuators to monitor and reproduce a riding experience; h)—download the application inside indoors riding device's computer; i)—run the application on indoor device; j)—equip a riding device with remote controlled actuators for riding; k)—equip the indoor device with remote control system compatible with the outdoor device; l)—run the application having an indoor controlled outdoors riding experience; m)—download a competition application and register to participate on real time or independently; n)—Organize outdoor competitions controlled from indoor riding devices;
 2. An accessory device for enhancing the riding experience comprising: a) at least one outdoor riding device equipped with: a.—a pedal crank adaptor that allows stepping and pedaling; b.—a mechanical adaptor adjusting the stepping range magnitude; c.—a switching system from pedaling to stepping; d.—a reciprocating mechanism that correlates the pedals action; e.—an electronic system measuring the parameters on the action at pedal level; f.—an electronic system measuring the riding devices parameters; g.—an electronic system that measures the rider's parameters; h.—a video stereoscopic system that records the path; b) a remote placed computer system connected via Ethernet that: a.—a dedicated code that transforms all the recording files into an application; b.—a Internet computer system that shares the ride-application with other users; c) an indoor exercise riding device that: a.—similar outdoor adaptor accessories installed on indoor riding device; b.—an accessory device that makes the computer compatible with the ride-application; c.—an adaptor device and code that makes the indoor riding device compatible with the racing/competition mode; d.—a RC transmission device from the indoor riding device to a near-by remote controlled riding device; d)—an outdoor riding device that: a. has an RC adaptor; b. is equipped as riding device from the point a); c. has actuators added for steering, pedaling, parking, braking, and prevent or recover from falling.
 3. A pedal's crank adapter accessory that converts a regular riding device with pedal circular propulsion (bicycle, tricycle, boat, etc.), to reciprocating motion propulsion like stepping or arm pushing made of:
 1. —a pedal's crank adaptor;
 2. —a pedal adaptor for stepping;
 3. —a transmission system with range multiplier stages;
 4. —a range limiting and reciprocating motion correlation device;
 5. —electronic system to measure record effort parameters;
 6. —electronic actuators to automatically change the transmission stages;
 7. —a device able to switch during running from stepping to pedaling and back;
 8. —a system measuring the force in the chain and augmenting it.
 4. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the crank adaptor goes over the crank and has only the pedals removed and transferred to the stepper.
 5. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the crank adaptor uses ratchet mechanism to provide the reciprocating movement.
 6. An accessory device according to claim 3 where a uni-direction friction-lock device is used for the reciprocating movement.
 7. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the pedal is measuring the force using a set of second degree levers hinged together and the pedal angle relative to crank-arm, and transmits for processing.
 8. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms have to be locked in the crank arm to switch to pedaling.
 9. An accessory device according to claim 3 where a set of levers are connecting the stepping arms correlating the reciprocating movement—making the movements complementary.
 10. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms contain an unidirectional ratchet mechanism and have to be reversed together with the reciprocating correlating mechanism in order to switch the stepping position from front to back and reverse.
 11. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms contain a bi-directional ratchet mechanism and switching the stepping position is made by changing the pedals and reciprocating mechanism position.
 12. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms contain a bi-directional ratchet mechanism and the reciprocating mechanism has a disc and arms that may connect or not to the disc switching the stepping position, and from stepping to pedaling and back is made while riding by changing the pedals and reciprocating mechanism position of the control buttons.
 13. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms contain a friction/sense activated disc-grip mechanism replacing the ratchet mechanism.
 14. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping arms ratchet mechanism transmit the movement to a stepping range adjusting device and from there to the bike's pedal chain-wheels set.
 15. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping range adjusting device uses clutches to switch the multiplication ratio.
 16. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping range adjusting device uses conical continuous variable transmission ratio to modify the multiplication ratio.
 17. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the stepping pedals pairs are connected via a pantograph mechanism that keeps them parallel during the movement, with stepping direction adjusting capabilities.
 18. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the pedal has the capability to measure force and its relative position to the arm.
 19. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the pedal's arm relative position to the bike is measured and transmitted to an electronic system.
 20. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the electronic system calculates the biker's effort on each leg as a function of time, records and displays it for further use.
 21. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the bike has an electronic measurement system that records all the kinematics parameters and various adjustments stages, measure the bike's GPS position and the accelerations on bike, calculating the road drag force, as a function of time and records riding experience.
 22. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the bike records the path as a stereoscopic movie.
 23. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the force in the chain may be augmented based on an electronic command.
 24. An accessory device according to claim 2 where the rider's personal body functions and parameters measuring device is connected at the bike's computer and recorded with the riding experience data.
 25. An accessory device according to claim 3 which may be attached to an indoors device.
 26. An accessory device according to claim 3 where the reciprocating/stepping mechanism may be used for other vehicle propulsion by hands or legs as wheelchairs, boats, trikes, other human propulsion (four-wheel or more) vehicles.
 27. An method according to claim 1 where the riding experience recorded outdoors is used indoors on a similar device.
 28. A method according claim 1 where the data are processed as function of path line and time-line, to be compatible with any accomplishment rate at the “riding experience” end user.
 29. A method according claim 1 where the initial experience is transformed in a unitary experience independent of the vehicle and parameters of the “experience” creator and is customized on the parameters of the experience end user. 